Democracy and Militarisation: War and Development
1988; Wiley; Volume: 19; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1759-5436.1988.mp19003002.x
ISSN1759-5436
Autores Tópico(s)Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America
ResumoThe Nicaraguan revolution captured world attention as the Sandinista guerrillas developed a political strategy which incorporated the business classes into the struggle against Somoza and promised a revolution based on the principles of political pluralism, a mixed economy, and international nonalignment.Although the political strategy of the Sandinistas for the overthrow of the dictatorship did not differ drastically from that of Cuban revolutionaries [see Harnecker 1987], they have been able, even under the blast of a US backed war, to maintain the general outlines of the model promised to the world during their struggle against Somoza.The image of a non-aligned, socialist, market society with victorious left-wing guerrillas and an electoral democracy is of such appeal that perhaps no war in modern history has had so many tourists visiting combat areas to see for themselves what was going on.One US based Christian organisation, Witness for Peace, has sent thousands of US citizens into the war zones of Nicaragua so that they act as a human shield between Nicaraguans and the US-backed Contras and provide US solidarity organisations with a steady flow of information regarding attacks against cilvilians.From 1979 to 1981, international solidarity movements projected what was, perhaps, too positive an image of the new Nicaragua.From 1981 onward, these utopian images and international support for the Sandinista revolution have been confronted by a series of counter-images generated by the Reagan administration and disenchanted liberals, who delight in being disappointed with alternative models such as that posed by the Sandinista revolution, thus permitting themselves to live more resignedly with the conservative restoration movements of Reagan and Thatcher.The image of 'a Marxist dictatorship and Soviet foothold on continental North America', although not taken seriously by political analysts and scholars, has nonetheless played a crucial role in the war being waged by the United States against Nicaragua.A less extreme but still distorted image of Nicaragua circulating quite broadly among scholars, especially in Europe and the United States, is that of'militarisation of the revolution' or that 'the Sandinistas have fallen into the trap of militarisation set for them by the Reagan administration'.It is this image of militari-IDS Eu/let/n.vol 19 no 3, Institute of Development Studies, Susses sation that I wish to contest.The first image has been
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